Critics are unconvinced the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant can safely hold the plutonium, or that the facility’s mission can be expanded via federal law in an appropriate amount of time. Experts estimated about 34 metric tons of surplus plutonium exist around the world, mostly in the U.S. and Russia. She said the study is considering only the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for the program and has not evaluated other sites. Congress could take decades to amend the law to expand acceptable waste at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to include plutonium, said Don Hancock with the Southwest Research and Information Center, an Albuquerque-based watchdog group. Hancock also pointed to a history of safety concerns and struggles by the repository to meet deadlines for depositing waste.

Source: National Post March 17, 2018 15:48 UTC